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Wednesday, 2 November 2011

Chili veg pitta pockets

Sometimes a meal comes together very haphazardly and not
at all how it had been planned. This is one such example….

I will admit I am solely to blame for this scenario since
labelling the leftovers to go into my freezer is not always my strong point. I
often make the mistake of thinking ‘well it will be obvious what it is, I won’t
need to write a label on the bag’.
Hmmm, once frozen solid with ice fuzzing up the outside it isn’t always
quite that obvious!

You see, I had
thought that I had taken out a portion of soup from the freezer and the plan
was to serve this along with a salad and homemade bread rolls, however upon
investigation it turned out to be a portion of vegetable chilli… quick rethink,
so instead we have an alternative meal for two:

A dish of vegetable chilli

A dish of roasted veg (in this case parsnip, pepper and
carrots)

A serving of toasted pittas cut into pockets

A quick and easy DIY fill-your-pittas experience…. the soup
can wait for another day!

Recipe: Vegetable chili

Serves 4

Ingredients

Large glug of olive oil

1 onion- diced

2 peppers- cut into chunks

1tsp mild chilli powder, 1tsp cumin
seeds, 2 cloves of garlic

2 medium sweet potatoes- peeled and
cut into chunks

1 large carrot- peeled and cut up

400g tinned tomatoes

150g red lentils (pre-soaked)

200ml hot vegetable stock

400g can red kidney beans

50g green beans

1 courgette- cut into chunks

100g frozen peas

Tomato puree and hot water- if needed

(Other vegetables can be added or
substituted)

Method

Pre-soak red lentils in hot water for approx. 20 mins. Fry onion
in oil for 5 mins, add the peppers, garlic and spices and cook for 2 mins. Stir
in the carrot and sweet potato then add the tomatoes, lentils, and vegetable
stock. Simmer for 15 mins. Add remaining ingredients- kidney beans, green
beans, courgette and frozen peas, and simmer for approx. 10 mins until all
vegetable are tender. Add tomato puree
with extra water if more sauce is needed. Serve with wholegrain rice or pasta
if desired.

Note- in this recipe I served one portion size of chilli with some extra
roasted veggies- I simple cut the veg into batons drizzled over a little olive oil and
some salt and pepper then roasted for approx. 20 mins. Warm the pittas in the
oven right at the end.

Freeze left over portions in individual bags- label them up (don’t
say I didn’t warn you!)